Last Updated on January 30, 2025
It’s rare that MLK Day and Inauguration Day happen to fall on the same day. Here’s why it’s happening this year.
Some holidays and special occasions are based on actual dates while Congress specified occasions based on a calendar layout for others. The federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. just so happens to fall on the same day as Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration. If you can’t recall the last time MLK Day and Inauguration Day fell on the same date, there’s good reason for that.
Inauguration Day
Inauguration Day for the president of the United States happens every four years on Jan. 20. Congress set that date (and the swearing-in time of noon) starting in 1937. So since then, every new president took the oath of office on Jan. 20.
There have been three exceptions to that rule, however. Those exceptions fell in 1957, 1985 and 2013. In those years, Jan. 20 was on a Sunday. When that happens, the new president (or existing one) takes the oath privately that Sunday. They then take the oath again at the public ceremony which is held that Monday.
So when MLK Day happens to fall on Jan. 20, there’s overlap.
MLK Day
Some people mistakenly believe the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday falls on the Civil Rights leader’s birthday. It doesn’t. King was born on Jan. 15, 1929.
But when Congress passed a bill establishing the King holiday, they didn’t go with his birthdate. Instead, they specified that the holiday would fall on the third Monday of January each year.
That means there are years in which MLK Day can actually fall on his birthday. In fact, it happened last year in 2024. It will happen again in 2029.
But because MLK Day is assigned to the third Monday of January rather than King’s birthday, its date can vary. The King holiday can fall on any of the seven dates of Jan. 15 through Jan. 21. The first King holiday, in 1986, fell on Jan. 20, but there was no presidential inauguration that year.
The next time MLK Day falls on a presidential inauguration comes in 2053.